George Bernard Shaw
An Unsocial Socialist
Written: 1883
CHAPTER I
In the dusk of an October evening, a sensible looking woman of forty came out
through an oaken door to a broad landing on the first floor of an old English
country-house. A braid of her hair had fallen forward as if she had been
stooping over book or pen; and she stood for a moment to smooth it, and to gaze
contemplatively-not in the least sentimentally-through the tall, narrow window.
The sun was setting, but its glories were at the other side of the house; for
this window looked eastward, where the landscape of sheepwalks and pasture land
was sobering at the approach of darkness.
The lady, like one to whom silence and quiet were luxuries, lingered on the
landing for some time. Then she turned towards another door, on which was
inscribed, in white letters, Class Room No. 6. Arrested by a whispering above,
she paused in the doorway, and looked up the stairs along a broad smooth
handrail that swept round in an unbroken curve at each landing, forming an
inclined plane from the top to the bottom of the house.
A young voice, apparently mimicking someone, now came from above, saying,
"We will take the Etudes de la Velocite next, if you please, ladies."
Immediately a girl in a holland dress shot down through space; whirled round the
curve with a fearless centrifugal toss of her ankle; and vanished into the
darkness beneath. She was followed by a stately girl in green, intently holding
her breath as she flew; and also by a large young woman in black, with her lower
lip grasped between her teeth, and her fine brown eyes protruding with
excitement. Her passage created a miniature tempest which disarranged anew the
hair of the lady on the landing, who waited in breathless alarm until two light
shocks and a thump announced that the aerial voyagers had landed safely in the
hall.
"Oh law!" exclaimed the voice that had spoken before. "Here's Susan."
"It's a mercy your neck ain't broken," replied some palpitating female. "I'll
tell of you this time, Miss Wylie; indeed I will. And you, too, Miss Carpenter:
I wonder at you not to have more sense at your age and with your size! Miss
Wilson can't help hearing when you come down with a thump like that. You shake
the whole house."
Oh bother!" said Miss Wylie. "The Lady Abbess takes good care to shut out all
the noise we make. Let us-"
"Girls," said the lady above, calling down quietly, but with ominous
distinctness.
Silence and utter confusion ensued. Then came a reply, in a tone of honeyed
sweetness, from Miss Wylie:
"Did you call us, DEAR Miss Wilson?"
"Yes. Come up here, if you please, all three."
There was some hesitation among them, each offering the other precedence. At
last they went up slowly, in the order, though not at all in the manner, of
their flying descent; followed Miss Wilson into the class-room; and stood in a
row before her, illumined through three western windows with a glow of ruddy
orange light. Miss Carpenter, the largest of the three, was red and confused.
Her arms hung by her sides, her fingers twisting the folds of her dress. Miss
Gertrude Lindsay, in pale sea-green, had a small head, delicate complexion, and
pearly teeth. She stood erect, with an expression of cold distaste for reproof
of any sort. The holland dress of the third offender had changed from yellow to
white as she passed from the gray eastern twilight on the staircase into the
warm western glow in the room. Her face had a bright olive tone, and seemed to
have a golden mica in its composition. Her eyes and hair were hazel-nut color;
and her teeth, the upper row of which she displayed freely, were like fine
Portland stone, and sloped outward enough to have spoilt her mouth, had they not
been supported by a rich under lip, and a finely curved, impudent chin. Her half
cajoling, half mocking air, and her ready smile, were difficult to confront with
severity; and Miss Wilson knew it; for she would not look at her even when
attracted by a convulsive start and an angry side glance from Miss Lindsay, who
had just been indented between the ribs by a finger tip.
"You are aware that you have broken the rules," said Miss Wilson quietly.
"We didn't intend to. We really did not," said the girl in holland, coaxingly.
"Pray what was your intention then, Miss Wylie?"
Miss Wylie unexpectedly treated this as a smart repartee instead of a rebuke.
She sent up a strange little scream, which exploded in a cascade of laughter.
"Pray be silent, Agatha," said Miss Wilson severely. Agatha looked contrite.
Miss Wilson turned hastily to the eldest of the three, and continued:
"I am especially surprised at you, Miss Carpenter. Since you have no desire to
keep faith with me by upholding the rules, of which you are quite old enough to
understand the necessity, I shall not trouble you with reproaches, or appeals to
which I am now convinced that you would not respond," (here Miss Carpenter, with
an inarticulate protest, burst into tears); "but you should at least think of
the danger into which your juniors are led by your childishness. How should you
feel if Agatha had broken her neck?"
"Oh!" exclaimed Agatha, putting her hand quickly to her neck.
"I didn't think there was any danger," said Miss Carpenter, struggling with her
tears. " Agatha has done it so oft-oh dear! you have torn me." Miss Wylie had
pulled at her schoolfellow's skirt, and pulled too hard.
"Miss Wylie," said Miss Wilson, flushing slightly, "I must ask you to leave the
room."
"Oh, no," exclaimed Agatha, clasping her hands in distress. "Please don't, dear
Miss Wilson. I am so sorry. I beg your pardon."
"Since you will not do what I ask, I must go myself," said Miss Wilson sternly.
"Come with me to my study," she added to the two other girls. "If you attempt to
follow, Miss Wylie, I shall regard it as an intrusion."
"But I will go away if you wish it. I didn't mean to diso-"
"I shall not trouble you now. Come, girls."
The three went out; and Miss Wylie, left behind in disgrace, made a surpassing
grimace at Miss Lindsay, who glanced back at her. When she was alone, her
vivacity subsided. She went slowly to the window, and gazed disparagingly at the
landscape. Once, when a sound of voices above reached her, her eyes brightened,
and her ready lip moved; but the next silent moment she relapsed into moody
indifference, which was not relieved until her two companions, looking very
serious, re-entered.
"Well," she said gaily, "has moral force been applied? Are you going to the
Recording Angel?"
"Hush, Agatha," said Miss Carpenter. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself."
"No, but you ought, you goose. A nice row you have got me into!"
"It was your own fault. You tore my dress."
"Yes, when you were blurting out that I sometimes slide down the banisters."
"Oh!" said Miss Carpenter slowly, as if this reason had not occurred to her
before. "Was that why you pulled me?"
"Dear me! It has actually dawned upon you. You are a most awfully silly girl,
Jane. What did the Lady Abbess say?"
Miss Carpenter again gave her tears way, and could not reply.
"She is disgusted with us, and no wonder," said Miss Lindsay.
"She said it was all your fault," sobbed Miss Carpenter.
"Well, never mind, dear," said Agatha soothingly. "Put it in the Recording
Angel."
"I won't write a word in the Recording Angel unless you do so first," said Miss
Lindsay angrily. "You are more in fault than we are."
"Certainly, my dear," replied Agatha. "A whole page, if you wish."
"I b-believe you LIKE writing in the Recording Angel," said Miss Carpenter
spitefully.
"Yes, Jane. It is the best fun the place affords."
"It may be fun to you," said Miss Lindsay sharply; "but it is not very
creditable to me, as Miss Wilson said just now, to take a prize in moral science
and then have to write down that I don't know how to behave myself. Besides, I
do not like to be told that I am ill-bred!"
Agatha laughed. "What a deep old thing she is! She knows all our weaknesses, and
stabs at us through them. Catch her telling me, or Jane there, that we are
ill-bred!"
"I don't understand you," said Miss Lindsay, haughtily.
"Of course not. That's because you don't know as much moral science as I, though
I never took a prize in it."
"You never took a prize in anything," said ...
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